22 August 2008

It's bothered me for quite some time that news outlets will take whatever is laying around and call it "breaking news". 9/11: Breaking News. Russians invade Georgia: Breaking News. Horse stuck in ditch: NOT Breaking News.

Back in the "push" era I got CNN News Alert (I think it was CNN), a Windows program that constantly updated the headlines. Except they were always the same headlines. If you set it to alert you for anything with a sound (beeps or a .WAV, I think), it started alerting you about the lamest shit you can imagine.

I was like, "ALERT ME IF I AM GOING TO BE HIT WITH A HURRICANE-EARTHQUAKE-FIRE-EXPLOSION", but it was a tad too sensitive. It was more like "ALERT ALERT ALERT THERE HAS BEEN AN UPDATE ON THE STORY YOU READ EARLIER. THE PRESIDENT OF BOGOZISTAN HAS RESPONDED TO THE TRADE AGREEMENT AMENDMENT OFFERED". Sheesh.